Many garments and other articles of apparel are designed to fit closely to the human body. When designing an article of apparel for a close fit to the human body, different body shapes and sizes must be considered. Different individuals within a particular garment size will have different body shapes and sizes. For example, two individuals wearing the same shoe size may have very differently shaped feet, including very different heel, midfoot and forefoot dimensions. These variable measurements between similarly sized individuals makes proper design of closely fitting garments difficult.
In addition to accounting for different body measurements for different individuals within a size, various contours of the human body must also be considered when designing closely fitting articles of apparel. These contours of the human body often include various double curvature surfaces. Spheroids, bowls, and saddle-backs are all examples of surfaces having double curvatures. If an article of apparel is not properly sized for a particular wearer, the wearer may experience undesirable tightness or looseness at various locations. Such an improper fit may result in discomfort, excessive wear, buckling, bending or creasing of the garment at the poorly fitting locations.
Another consideration when designing articles of apparel is the stress, strain and other forces that will be applied to particular regions of the article of apparel, depending upon the use of the article of apparel. For example, a shoe that is used for cross training purposes will experience forces that are significantly different from a shoe that is used exclusively for running. Thus, it is difficult to design a shoe or other article of apparel that offers good performance characteristics when used for various different purposes.
The contour and fit of a particular of apparel may be further complicated by coupling arrangements such as lacing arrangements, zippers, and buttons which draw opposing seams toward one another and couple them together. In particular, because fastening arrangements draw two opposing sides together, there is often buckling and creasing in the area of the fastening arrangement when the sides are drawn together, and this can lead to discomfort and undesirable tightness to the wearer.
In view of the foregoing, it would be desirable to provide a shoe or other article of apparel capable of conforming to various foot or body shapes within a given size range. It would also be desirable to provide a shoe or other article of apparel that is capable of conforming to various double curvatures on the human body and generally providing a good fit. Furthermore, it would be advantageous if such a shoe or other article of apparel could be designed to offer good performance characteristics for multiple uses, such as a cross-training shoe that offer good performance characteristics when the shoe is used for any of a number of different athletic training purposes. Also, it would be advantageous to provide a shoe including a fastening arrangement adapted to reduce buckling and discomfort to a wearer when the fastening arrangement is drawn together. In addition, it would be desirable for such a garment or article of apparel to be relatively inexpensive and easy to manufacture.